It would take a more skilled rhetorician and speaker than Hegseth— he's a surprisingly bad public speaker for someone whose only job qualification was being on TV— to manage the pivot from marking D-Day to worrying about invaders on the beaches of Europe, adopting the Nazi defenders' POV.

When Trump's illegal taxes are struck down, he just re-imposes them in a new form. abcnews.com/Business/tru... #tariff

DHS: "ICE is not responsible when an individual passes away weeks after leaving their custody." abcnews.com/US/ice-stop-... #ICE

I've put up a quick recording of my setting of Yeats' "The Second Coming" on SoundCloud. soundcloud.com/garym03062/s... @billblake2018.bsky.social

In this post, I explain why Bernie Sanders' plan to expropriate 50% of the value of major AI producers is unconstitutional, dangerous, and has much in common with Trump's awful policies. Another example of "horseshoe theory" at work: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

I was sure this was from Judicial Watch, but it's from some group called "Amac Action." It's pushing a "Ban non-citizen voting" petition, even though non-citizens already can't vote.

There's a flavor of libertarian who says that because there has always been serious abuse of power, Trump is nothing new or especially worrisome. They're among the least excusable excuse-makers.

Nichelle Nichols' family awarded $13 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against a medical center. www.scdailypress.com/2026/06/04/g... #StarTrek

Coming soon to a library near you (if you're near Plaistow): D. W. Griffith's America with my accompaniment! #silentFilm

Be wary of poll numbers. A slight change in wording can greatly influence the results. So can sampling methods. Sometimes it's blatantly intentional, sometimes sloppy, and sometimes it happens in spite of the best efforts. #sanityProject

Those who refuse to see any difference between normal badness and a catastrophe in the making deserve the catastrophe. Unfortunately, we'll get it too.

Odd. Just now I couldn't save a draft.

Trump defines ceasefire as "shooting in a more moderate manner." That's an exact quote. www.wmur.com/article/hous... #Iran

FIFA bans World Cup spectators from bringing in water bottles, for the sake of their "health." Dehydration is good for you. Bottled water will be for sale at the games. #FIFA www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

As someone formerly associated with the LPNH, I've posted to say what I think of the current situation. garymcgath.com/note-on-lpnh/ #NewHampshire #LibertarianParty #LPNH

Listening to Shostakovich's symphonies in sequence and just finished the 4th. Extremely powerful, often very hard to grasp. Parts remind me strongly of Mahler.

BREAKING: The House just passed a War Powers Resolution to end Trump's illegal war. Both houses of Congress have now passed bipartisan resolutions demanding the war end. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, power to declare war. Trump must end this war now.

I now have subscription tickets for the upcoming Portsmouth (NH) Symphony season, the best seat in the house! (Front row balcony center) #NewHampshire #classicalMusic

Placing troops and federal law enforcement at the polls is legally suspect and may not occur. But if it does, those irregular domestic deployments will create predictable risks. @danmaurerlawprof.bsky.social outlines what state and local election officials should do to mitigate these risks.

You can’t believe everything you see online. That well-worn wisdom bears repeating. Especially when content is created and consumed far more quickly than it can be vetted.

A favorite claim of MAGAs is that their neighbors who went to protests got paid for it. I've seen it lots on Nextdoor and in YouTube comments. Anyone should quickly see the impossibility, but it's part of the alternate mental world which they inhabit. garymcgath.com/alternate-me...

Trump trades slush fund for ICE funding, still gets immunity from tax audits. www.wmur.com/article/trum...

DHS Threatens International Travel to U.S. as World Cup Looms https://bit.ly/4x5cSsj

Judicial Watch must have figured out that people are tossing their junk mail unopened. Their latest doesn't have their name on the outside, but has ominous text like "REGISTERED NOTIFICATION" and "CONTENTS UNDER SEAL". #JudicialWatch

Chris Hardee (@stereotopical.bsky.social) explains why the indictment of Raul Castro does not legally justify an invasion of Cuba, despite the Trump administration’s so-called indict-and-invade theory for regime change in the Western Hemisphere.

Substack sets up its login page so it's easy to mistakenly sign in by the less secure email method rather than by password. I just slipped up again today.

The pattern is crystal clear everywhere. Two Democrats are competing for the Senate nomination in Iowa. Neither is talking about fighting Trump's autocratic, illegal power grabs. www.kwwl.com/news/wahls-t...

Nextdoor has a new (I think) rule: No criticizing the moderators. That site is silly.

Just finished my first nonstop runthrough accompanying D. W. Griffith's "America." The intertitles were criticized after the first showings, and they're often redundant, sometimes pointless, and occasionally just weird. #silentFilm

Trump didn't start the fire... garymcgath.com/road-to-trump/

🚨 Someone is sabotaging the liberty movement in New Hampshire. Jeremy Kauffman removed and trespassed from the LP convention after calling attendees "freaks," "loser apes," and "theatre kids." 🔗 https://artofliberty.substack.com/p/suspected-fed-and-agent-provocateur

I now have tickets for all the Brookline concerts in the upcoming Boston Artists Ensemble season. If you tried earlier but were frustrated by bugs in the website, it's working better now. bostonartistsensemble.org #classicalMusic

The road to Trump was paved by previous presidents, both Democratic and Republican. garymcgath.com/road-to-trump/

It should be disturbing that Bret Michaels had to cancel an appearance because of threats, regardless of the venue. I haven't been able to find more about their nature. This article at least pays more attention to them than most. www.pennlive.com/entertainmen...

Trump's Justice Department is seeking the names, addresses, and banking information of Reddit and X users — ratcheting up efforts to identify social media critics of government deportation efforts. Jeanine Pirro's office has subpoenaed the social media companies as part of criminal investigations.

Is the cheapening of standing ovations just a northeastern phenomenon, or has it happened all over the USA? In my extremely limited experience, I haven't seen it in Europe.

Routine standing ovations have gotten out of hand. The Pathétique Symphony got one today at the end of the THIRD movement.

The Portsmouth Symphony is holding a fundraising concert next month, and 1920s garb is expected. My Metropolis T-shirt should do.

Nice touch at the Portsmouth Symphony concert today: a card at my seat with my name on it thanking me for subscribing, signed by one of the musicians.

A driver in front of me is parked in a traffic lane while there's a perfectly good parking space right next to him.

Made a complete botch of my music at the service, but nobody noticed. That's called musicianship. 😉

Anti-ICE protesters tear-gassed in New Jersey. abcnews.com/US/new-jerse...

The Democratic response to Trump in this year's election campaigns will be so muted it will normalize what he's done.

Listening to Shostakovich's symphonies in sequence, and just finished the 3rd. This is the first one that sounds "Shostakovich-like" to me, and I'm impressed how satirical it gets.

People talk about metaphysics as if it's complicated, but there are two basic approaches: the world we live in is real, or it's some kind of illusion. The burden of proof is on the second hypothesis.

The national Libertarian Party has formally kicked LPNH out. I'm from New Hampshire, I was with the LPNH in its better days, and I applaud this action. www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026... #NewHampshire

These Dem candidates talk a lot about "fighting," but notice they don't say a single words about fighting against authoritarianism and overreach of power. One even says outright he doesn't like attacks on Trump. www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/p... #NewHampshire

It is completely unacceptable that these extrajudicial murders are just how we do things now and met with a shrug. This is murder. The people involved are murderers. There is no conceivable legal authority for these slayings. Hegseth belongs in prison. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Power is out here and Unitil's outage map isn't responding.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Federal judge sides with voting rights groups, says New Hampshire must loosen requirements to prove citizenship to vote.